Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness pumps some red blood into the MCU

I thoroughly enjoyed Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. It’s inventive, splashy, surprising and fun. Marvel has another hit on its hands.

I didn’t think I would like it this much. In fact, for nearly the first hour, I was pretty bored. How did I arrive at my destination? Strap in for our spoiler-free review.

Doctor Strange and the Muiltiverse of Madness grows on you

We open with a special effects-heavy action scene that’s so clunky and cliche-ridden I half-expected it to be some kind of self-parody; it kind of reminded me of that Tomb Buster video in the recent episode of Moon Knight, the cheesy old movie that supposedly inspired Oscar Isaac’s madness? It was nice to look at, and it hit a couple of dramatic beats, but it didn’t feel like anything we hadn’t seen in the MCU a million times before.

That goes on for a minute. We catch up with Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), who’s feeling out of sorts after being snapped away from reality for five years in Avengers: Infinity War. There’s an action scene on the streets of New York City — pause for shocked gasps — and we meet the ingenue of the hour, America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), a dimension-hopping teen who needs Doctor Strange’s help.

Throughout this whole section, the characters seem only to speak in dialogue that forwards the plot, with barely any thought spared for personality or depth. Strange is snappy, Wong (Benedict Wong) is the straight man and America is a standard-issue spunky teen sent straight over from Disney’s warehouse of stock characters.

If I’m being honest, she doesn’t really evolve beyond that. She’s not the one who won me over. Wanda was.

Wanda Maximoff is bad guy we deserve

The last time we saw Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), she was flying away from the town of Westview in WandaVision, having accidentally (and then not so accidentally) kept it hostage for weeks with her reality-altering powers. I wasn’t sure how they were going to use her in this movie, but I wasn’t expecting this.

The trailers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness hint that Wanda is an antagonist. She is, but that doesn’t go far enough. Without giving too much away, Wanda is the villain of this movie. And when I say “villain,” I don’t mean “antihero.” I don’t mean “bad guy with a redemption arc,” I mean a V-is-for-vicious villain. Wanda — or rather the Scarlet Witch — does things we have not seen in the MCU before. In fact, things get so intense I frankly wonder if Disney had to slip some money under the table to get this movie a PG-13 rating.

Don’t get me wrong: Doctor Strange 2 isn’t a splatter-fest; this is still the MCU we’re talking about. But this pushes things further than ever before. If you take your kid to this movie they might have nightmares, and I mean that as a compliment.

Director Sam Raimi brings his Evil Dead best

Hiring Evil Dead director Sam Raimi to steer this ship was the right call, because he comes to play. We’re talking canted angles, dizzying dolly shots, hungry demons from the depths of hell and a villain who says she’s going to kill you and means it. I started liking this movie when Wanda got hardcore and I never stopped. I flipped so hard on it I wonder if Raimi and company weren’t mugging their way through the first part to lull me into a false sense of security before they plunged in the knife. You know it’s a good movie when you want to make excuses for the lame bits.

The music by Danny Elfman warrants special mention. It’s excellent, and it’s not just there as background. There is a music-themed fight sequence in here that is either the stupidest brilliant fight scene I’ve ever seen or the most brilliant stupid fight seen I’ve ever seen. Either way, I loved it.

The movie rides high on that kind of geeky enthusiasm; there’s a sense of the producers gleefully mashing together Marvel action figures, and I was here for it. Granted, that doesn’t make for the tightest script; the character drama is shallow at best, particularly with Wanda. The movie has to pull some MacGuffin crap to explain how she got this mean, but I didn’t really mind when mean is such a good look on her.

So what about those Doctor Strange cameos?

I suppose I should say something about the cameos, since there’s so much buzz about them. There are some. They are neat. But there aren’t as many as in Spider-Man: No Way Home, nor are they anywhere near as integral to the plot.

Happily, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has plenty to recommend it beyond that. This may not be the Citizen Kane of superhero movies, but it is a naughty, giddy jolt to the senses.

Movie Grade: B

Now that the review is over, I’ll mention the post-credits scenes. There’s a mid-credits scene that sets up the next thing, obviously. And there’s a post-credits scene that got the biggest laugh of the night. And that’s all you’re getting until Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness lands in theaters this weekend.

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